Last week DailyTech reported
that the 500 GB hard drives on some of the new MacBook Pros were
beeping
randomly and performing poorly. Apple said it was aware of
these issues and that it considered fixing them one of its top
priorities. It apparently didn't take them long to deliver on
that assurance.

Apple has just released Hard
Drive Firmware Update 2.0 to its Mac users. The firmware
update "reduces certain infrequent noises made by 7200-rpm
drives." The new firmware ID is 0007APM2, for those
curious.

Apple claims that the issues are confined to the new
MacBook Pros it began shipping in June (13" and 15") -- but
it can't hurt for those who purchased the 17" MacBook Pro in
January to update as well.

Another fix also came down the pipe
for Mac users. All unibody Macs and Macs shipped in 2009 likely
use the Broadcom chipset for Bluetooth wireless. The chipset
had performed poorly, according to some, leading to difficulties
using Apple's wireless mice and keyboards. With Bluetooth
Firmware Update 2.0.1, various bugs are fixed and the wireless
performance is increased.

While its always disappointing to
see hardware issues escape pre-launch quality testing, it's good to
see that Apple is at least trying hard to solve some of the hardware
issues on its Macs. Now if Apple can figure out a way to fix
the display
problems that some users have experienced.

"It's okay. The scenarios aren't that clear. But it's good looking. [Steve Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good example of that." -- Bill Gates on the Apple iPad